Farewells
by Janey Faith Banquee
Summary: The final stand between Rowena and Salazar before he left the Hogwarts Four for good.


**I recently became highly interested in the Founders, and as a result, tried my hand at writing about them.**

**Opinions? Should I write more founders? Or stick to my original types?**

**I apologise for the shortness. I came up with this… Late tonight, and quickly typed it out. Sorry.**

**Janey xx**

Farewells.

She stood in the arched stone balcony, in sharp relief against the cloudy darkening sky, her robes twisting and dancing around her, almost free of their tether, being gathered up and thrown amongst her skirts in the breeze. Her dark hair was more than a frame for her face, it was a parted veil as she stared straight ahead, indicating that her brain was whirring forward uncontrollably, moving into an overdrive of thought in a desperate attempt to fix what was wrong.

"Rowena."

She ignored his silky voice at first, but it clung to her, pulling and tugging at her ears, clawing at her insides, diving deep down within her and clawing at the pit of her stomach. He knew he wouldn't have to repeat it. He waited in the godforsaken silence that had fallen upon the castle in the previous days… months… years? How long had it been?

It had been a while.

She turned slowly, finally, turning to face him, her expression defiant. But he knew, if he were closer, he would see the cracks form, the emotion…

"You broke us. You broke us all," she let out finally. It rang out like a lament across the wind and the space between them.

He strode forward hurriedly.

"Come with me?"

She ignored his question… request… plea?

"Why? What was wrong with the way we were? All four of us. Helga? Godric – your best friend?" she searched his face, looking for something, _something_, to believe in.

"He is no friend of mine," Salazar spat.

"You would stay if he asked you to." She responded, quietly, stony faced.

"Rowena-"

"NO!" she screamed out, "No, you did this!"

"We can't let these… these… Wizards born of Muggles into our school! The Muggles are afraid of us, they burn us! They want us dead."

"Perhaps they should do." She turned away from him, disgustedly, "The magical ones are our kinfolk. We cannot discriminate. They are _people_. As long as they are magic, there shall be places for them at Hogwarts."

"You are wrong. We cannot let this happen."

She span around, glaring.

"You are fighting for a world that will never exist, Salazar! And you are too frightened to admit it! Why can't you leave this… this… 'ideal purity' stupidity behind? YOU BROKE US. YOU BROKE US ALL."

And then the tears were flowing down her cheeks, as she feebly beat her fists against his chest, angry at the world around her. He caught her wrist and lowered his face so that he was close to her face, his travelling cape engulfing them both, moulded into a cove by the gale beginning around them.

"Shhh… Shhh…" He kissed her lips once, twice, three times.

"Please, Rowena, come with me."

She bit her lip and shook her head, closing her eyes against him, against the world, against tears.

"Please…"

She remained frozen still.

He set his jaw and dropped her wrists, taking a step back from her.

"Fine. So be it."

He turned to walk away, slamming the door to the clock tower before he allowed his face to show any emotion. His lip curled into a snarl, before relaxing into a saddened, heartbroken pain. His pale, thin face collapsing as he walked his final journey within the walls of Hogwarts.

Then he re-established his stony faced indifference.

He cared not.

They did not matter. None of them. They were wrong. And their pathetic school would fail.

As he mounted the horse that waited for him outside, he looked up to the tower a final time.

She stood, tears falling unashamedly from her face, but she was too distant for his eyes to see this. The pair stood, as close as they would be for years, and took in the other for one final time… before Rowena Ravenclaw watched on as Salazar Slytherin swung his leg up over the saddle of his horse and dug his heels in, speeding away into the never ending blackness of the night.


End file.
